Sorry to repost but id like to add that Ringos time on the song, Something....... is just a killer.I never thought that it was any big deal,till i tried to play it at one of our rehearsals..Very tough to keep that speed.amazing timekeeper.........

Sorry to repost but id like to add that Ringos time on the song, Something....... is just a killer.I never thought that it was any big deal,till i tried to play it at one of our rehearsals..Very tough to keep that speed.amazing timekeeper.........

Totally agree with you on that one. I love the drumming on 'Abbey Road' in general, but 'Something' is a quiet masterpiece.

He was as good technically on his instrument as the other three Beatles were at singing, playing guitar and piano etc.

The thing is, absolutely anyone can be good technically. It's just a matter of how much rote practice you can stand to put yourself through.

Only Ringo could have composed the incredible music he played on his drums on songs like Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day in the Life etc. Only Paul could have written Maybe I'm Amazed. Only John could have written Imagine, only George could have written While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

As musicians, collectively you all seem to be missing the point.

Your collective attitude seems to be that the more technically proficient you are and the more technically demanding your compositions are to play, the better they will sound to people's ears.

This is like saying that someone who can type 216 words per minute is going to be the greatest novelist of all time.

Or that the likes of Norman Mailer or J.R.R Tolkien wrote bad books because they could only type, say, 25 words per minute.

To me......If I take the media fuss out of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones or any other "popular bands" the musicians in these bands are as important and as same as the unknown bar band that is playing right down the street..... just musicians having fun.
my 4 cents!

Take it up with Wikipedia. It was a quote, and I tend to believe them.

I just changed that one part on Wikipedia . . . I didn't bother changing the other things that are wrong, as there's a good chance it will just get changed back to the wrong info anyway, and I'm not fond of facelessly fighting with others in that kind of situation.

To me......If I take the media fuss out of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones or any other "popular bands" the musicians in these bands are as important and as same as the unknown bar band that is playing right down the street..... just musicians having fun.
my 4 cents!

PT, if an unknown bar band had songwriters and vocalists that can do what the guys in the Beatles did they wouldn't be unknown for long.

It wasn't all the zeitgeist or Brian Epstein's management. Those guys were gifted and dedicated.

Ah, I couldn't help myself--I corrected the whole thing. So that paragraph on Wikipedia now reads: "One of the most salient musical features of the song is its frequent shifts in [[time signature]], some tempo changes, and some unusual phrasing. The song begins in standard 4/4 time but quickly begins to deviate from the norm. There is a five bar phrase rather than the usual four with the line beginning on "She's well acquainted...". The last phrase/line of that verse ("A soap impression . . . ") has a 6/4 bar (the second measure of the phrase) before going back to 4/4 for the last two bars of the phrase, and Ringo plays the downbeat on "1" in the fourth bar, giving a more unusual feel. The subsequent guitar lead and bridge can be analyzed as a 3-bar pattern of 9/8, 12/8, 12/8 (or 5 bars--one of 9/8, four of 6/8, etc.), with Ringo retaining an implied 6/8 throughout, so that the snare drum downbeats are on "1" as often as not. This gives way to faster (almost double time) four bar pattern of 6/8, 6/4, 6/8, 7/4 for the "Mother Superior..." section before returning to a slower 4/4 for the doo-wop style ending. During the "When I hold you..." section, the rest of the band returns to 6/8, but Ringo stays in 4/4. This is one of the few examples of [[polyrhythm]] in the Beatles' repertoire."

Well done, BB - and GD for finding it for the thread in the first place.

I used to play along with Happiness but never had a clue about the numbers. I just knew that you'd add a beat or two in various places. I generally found it pretty intuitive and some parts of Here Comes the Sun seemed less obvious to me, even though it's just some 7/8 here and there.

Love the way Ringo comes across as so simple yet he kept a lot up his sleeve. His ears ruled, not his hands.

Regardless if anyone thinks Ringo is the best ever or worst, the fact remains he was the guy the BAND wanted to drum for them.

Most rock drummers at the time were converted jazz drummers, and so many rock tunes of the late 50's and early 60's had this implied jazz feel. I often think John, Paul and George picked Ringo because he did NOT have that implied jazz feel, rather he could play things very straight to suite their song writing at the time.

Regardless if anyone thinks Ringo is the best ever or worst, the fact remains he was the guy the BAND wanted to drum for them.

Most rock drummers at the time were converted jazz drummers, and so many rock tunes of the late 50's and early 60's had this implied jazz feel. I often think John, Paul and George picked Ringo because he did NOT have that implied jazz feel, rather he could play things very straight to suite their song writing at the time.

And from there, the rest is history.

Good point dude. Any idiot knows Ringo is technically not a very good drummer at all but he played EXACTLY what those songs called for. Im not a big Beatles fan but i do know that Ringo was perfectly happen to let those 3 do most of the song writing and arranging while he just played what they asked for.

__________________
Why I Am.... still here dancin with The Groogrux King

Regardless if anyone thinks Ringo is the best ever or worst, the fact remains he was the guy the BAND wanted to drum for them.

Most rock drummers at the time were converted jazz drummers, and so many rock tunes of the late 50's and early 60's had this implied jazz feel. I often think John, Paul and George picked Ringo because he did NOT have that implied jazz feel, rather he could play things very straight to suite their song writing at the time.

And from there, the rest is history.

You're also forgetting that Ringo was an established drummer in Liverpool before he joined The Beatles. People/Haters ignorantly seem to think he was just a random unknown drummer who got lucky. He was in Rory Storm + The Hurricanes which was the top band in Liverpool before The Beatles made it big.

Here's some nice quotes...

Mike McCartney -- "There were quite a few drummers around Liverpool and I used to go home and tell Paul about Ringo. I often saw him play with Rory Storm. ...With Rory he was a very inventive drummer. He goes around the drums like crazy. He doesn't just hit them -- he invents sounds." (1983 interview for The Beatles: A Celebration by Geoffrey Guilliano, 1992)

"Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Star-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other." -John Lennon, Playboy 1980 Interview

I also find it sad how metal heads here on drummerworld say he's not technically good. I recently watched this documentary on the making of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, in which Ringo plays drums for, and Klaus Voormann was saying how all the greatest drummers he knows like Jim Keltner "love Ringo". All the big names in drumming like Steve Gadd and Charlie Watts have all praised his talents, yet ignorant people here say he's not technically good because he doesn't play flashy.

Good point dude. Any idiot knows Ringo is technically not a very good drummer at all but he played EXACTLY what those songs called for. Im not a big Beatles fan but i do know that Ringo was perfectly happen to let those 3 do most of the song writing and arranging while he just played what they asked for.

Technically not a great drummer??? [rolls eyes]

"The fill is the art of the drummer, that happens in the moment. That’s always been the way with me. I can’t think about it. I don’t play drum parts. I have no idea how it’s gonna turn out. I don’t say, “Oh, 16 bars in I’ll do that.” I have no idea at all what I’m going to do, it just happens." -Ringo Starr
Strawberry Fields Forever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T02iI0AVIg

"There were quite a few drummers around Liverpool and I used to go home and tell Paul about Ringo. I often saw him play with Rory Storm. ...With Rory he was a very inventive drummer. He goes around the drums like crazy. He doesn't just hit them -- he invents sounds." -Mike McCartney
She Said She Said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b00VTswskFI

"I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today... Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. Ringo laid down the fundamental rock beat that drummers are playing today and they probably don't even realize it." -Kenny Arnoff
Rain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPjDMZiuhbQ

"Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do." -Phil Collins
A Day in the Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfrvY8zAL4A

"Ringo comes from a different kind of school, and I find that totally exciting and challenging. How he does what he does…it's so different from what other drummers do. If somebody approaches music or their instrument in a way that's unique, I want to be around that person. To me, there's something to learn there. It was great being around him; he's so inspiring." -Steve Gadd
Something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbi5uQr02Ik

"Ringo's tom fills really make the song, but funnily enough, he hated doing them because he could never remember what he was did one take to the next. I think that's why his fills are so spectacular - he felt that he would never reproduce them, so he'd better get 'em right." -Geoff Emerick
Here Comes The Sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7h1IphPfeU

"Ringo is one of the greatest rock drummers. There were times when he’d get in the middle of a drum fill and not know how to get out, and that’s what made it great." -Ken Scott
I Me Mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88RXx8BudM

"I don't ever want to step on Ringo; he's my favourite drummer. To me, he's the greatest drummer in the world, and the reason I play the instrument is because of him." -Gregg Bissonette
Yer Blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05nV-c61pmk

"Ringo Starr’s drumming is infallible, untouchable, and he is quite simply the greatest drummer in the history of rock n roll music." -Steve Gorman
Tomorrow Never Knows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHaM0K_d5_Y

"Ringo doesn't dazzle with flashy technique and pyrotechnics. What he does is so much more elusive and difficult: He plays songs on the drums. Anybody who has sat down behind a drum kit in the last 45 years owes him." -Elliot Easton
She Loves You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oOQROq3WN0

You're also forgetting that Ringo was an established drummer in Liverpool before he joined The Beatles. People/Haters ignorantly seem to think he was just a random unknown drummer who got lucky. He was in Rory Storm + The Hurricanes which was the top band in Liverpool before The Beatles made it big.
.

Where did I say he came from no where? Just because I didn't type out Ringo's life story doesn't mean I forgot anything. Yesh. Obviously, he came from somewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuddyBeaufordGaddNeil

Good point dude. Any idiot knows Ringo is technically not a very good drummer at all

I never stated nor implied any such statement.

Now I know I've always stayed out of Ringo threads in the past, one little comment gets people way over reacting!!!

Mars Hollow burst out onto the prog scene this year via their self-titled debut album on 10T Records. Those among you with good memories will remember that I covered this release a short bit ago on Bill’s Prog Blog (click here if you’d like to re-read the review: http://billsprogblog.blogspot.com/20...ollow-10t.html), with some very favourable things to say about it.

The band has not been resting on their collective laurels…they just played what was, by all accounts, a stormer of a set at Mexicali Prog, and are also due to play this year’s Progday festival at Storybook Farm in Chapel Hill North Carolina. They’re also working up material for their sophomore album, which we may be lucky enough to see next year.

On Ringo Starr and how Ringo influenced his playing as a drummer:
RFT: I know that Ringo Starr is a big influence on you as a drummer, which I find interesting because while he is revered by many, he hasn't always been labeled critically as a great drummer. So I'm curious to know how he influenced you as a player.

People still argue about [basketball players] Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, you know what I mean? And if that's an argument you're going to actively [pursue] - anyone who says Wilt Chamberlain, I don't even listen to them. I don't want to know anything else about their life. It's like saying Ringo or Neil Peart - that doesn't even make sense to me. Of course Neil Peart is an amazing drummer, as is John Bonham, as is Charlie Watts, as is Glenn Kotche from Wilco - that guy is insane! I would honestly say even more so than Bonham and Led Zeppelin, I can't imagine another drummer playing in The Beatles. The sound and feel of that band, people just take them for granted as far as how great of a band they were, because they're the biggest band ever.

You go back and listen to their live tapes from '62 and '63, when they're just playing six hours a night, they are swinging like crazy! Ringo is such a swinging drummer and he's very much a groove drummer. Everyone talks about Ringo because he's the most famous drummer ever and they miss the point on him. The other guy that no one ever talks about is John Densmore from the Doors, who's just a monster part of what the Doors were. The Ringo thing, you just can't hear anybody else playing those tunes. You just can't imagine any of that stuff making more sense. I hear "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and it just makes my skin crawl to hear Paul McCartney play that drum kit the way he plays it. It's hard for me to even know where to start because there's hardly been anybody more musically in tune with what the song needed than Ringo Starr. Who knows how it must have been like to be in the Beatles, but the fact is he was the one in The Beatles. You look at the scoreboard and they won the game, you know what I mean?

Definitely. You hear certain drummers, and you know by the sound of their playing, exactly who it is behind the kit.

Totally. The best example is on the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise at the end of the album, when it counts in and he just plays that little beat for eight measures, that is my favorite drum pass of all time. I can listen to that on a loop for an hour. It just feels perfect to me - that's what everything is supposed to feel like, right there. And every drummer in the world can play it, but nobody can make it feel like that. Drumming is about something feels.

He looks great for his age and he has a great attitude, but wow ... I know they say that your nose and ears never stop growing but rarely have I seen that phenomenon so clearly demonstrated. Get a load of those flappers on him! :)